So one of the reasons you’ve seen so little of me recently is that I’ve started taking night classes. While nothing compared to Ermi’s honor year, it does take up two evenings a week, involves homework, and somedays, todday included, means I have to take some work home with me because I had to leave for class. Today’s lesson was about innovation and how some companies can get stuck in their ways.
We talked about Swiss watches. The Swiss used to control over 60% of the market and now control less than 10%. Though the Japanese are now the leading watch manufacturers, it was Swiss designers who presented the technology to Japan after their own company dismissed the idea (watches with batteries).
I think the same happens to authors. We complain about how Amazon changed the rules or banned our books. They may be the giant now, but the authors who survive are going to be the ones who innovate and adapt. Think about authors stuck in paperback, unwilling to modify books to audio or ebook. They will die out and the ones willing to change and reach their audience in new ways will flourish. If you want to get out from under Amazon’s thumb, you need to be like the Japanese overthrowing the Swiss. Find or invent the next change way people experience books.
I welcome your thoughts, leave us a comment below.
-Eliabeth
Ermilia 
I don’t want to overthrow anyone. I just want people to be glad I took the time to write. I don’t really need it to be 60% of the market. One or two seven-billionths is close enough.
I like your attitude. This was more for people upset at Amazon. I certainly understand how scary it can be when your livelihood is threatened. Some authors are happy just to write, others want to make a living but don’t understand the business aspect.
How many people even wear watches anymore. Who are the Japanese or anyone selling watches to? Won’t that market shrink even more?
I don’t want to rule the world either. 🙂 I like to write and share. Roses at my feet would be nice. 😀
Haha anyone who wants to throw roses at my feet is welcome to do so. Thorns not welcome. Actually, boyfriend is working on apps for a Google watch and there’s at least one that lets you answer your phone. I don’t personally use one, but they’re not going out of style so long as there are techies left in the world.
I’m astonished but then I haven’t worn a watch for about 15 or so years. Apps for watches? Now, THAT’s an interesting thought and ‘one that lets you answer your phone.?” Now that’s thinking! 😀
“…Think about authors stuck in paperback, unwilling to modify books to audio or ebook…”
These ‘innovations’ were brought about with the sole aim of making money. There’s more to being a creative artist than money. There’s a place for paperbacks if WE say there is. Closing down a mode of delivery is the retrograde step. Imagine if you had said “Because of YouTube and mp3s we must move beyond live concerts”!
I disagree. Ebooks and Audiobooks have brought books to a whole new audience. Without audiobooks, I who love paperbacks, would not read as much as I do now. We as authors don’t get to say whether there is a market for paperbacks or not. Our consumers are going to tell us how they want to consume our products and we must adapt. I don’t think paperback will go out entirely, just as live concerts have not gone out entirely, but a musican unwilling to promote on youTube or sell mp3s who ONLY wants to make money from concert tickets would not be able to survive in today’s market.
But that’s precisely what you were saying in your post! You are saying that authors stuck in paperbacks ‘WILL die out’. Now you have changed your position.
Innovation can be a good thing – if it actually improves lives. Unfortunately most of what drives innovation today is really about profit margins and bottom lines, at the expense of those who create, produce and have to find ways to promote themselves – often in creative fashions. However, if it makes sense to promote and create and market oneself in different ways, then, of course, by all means — but throwing the baby out with the bath water, isn’t healthy, or profitable.
If traditional means – paper bound books built the foundations of the industry – the industry *should* leave the building blocks in place. Mass-market and overindulgent greedy based consumerism is not healthy.
For as wonderful as technology can be – here I am writing to you – from way across the world (?) — what happens when this technology, for whatever reasons, is no longer available?
Writing is the written form of the ancient tradition of story-telling. No more – no less.
Unfortunately, people no longer really know how to communicate and share – face to face – anymore. Sadly, they don’t think it is a skill worth preserving.
So if paper bound books become relics – then it will be one step further to our blindly rampant greed and self-destruction.
Change is good – but at what cost?
Most are content to dismiss long-term consequences, but at some point, our decisions in the “here and now” will cycle back to haunt us.
My opinions and thoughts, as I sit drinking my morning coffee.